Newbie in a nutshellSustaining a cohort of new entrants is crucial for the agriculturalsector and rural regions in Europe. New entrants bringinnovation and entrepreneurialism, as well as practical skillsand networks. However, new entrants face considerablechallenges in entering the sector (see below). The newbienetwork will address the challenge of enabling new entrants tosuccessfully establish sustainable farm businesses in Europe.

The Newbie network will feature the development anddissemination of new business models, including new entrymodels, to the full range of new entrants - from successors tocomplete newcomers to the agricultural sector.

The Newbie network offers a unique platform by bringingtogether new entrants, successors, advisors, researchers,important regional and national actors and relevantstakeholders in national networks.

Who are new entrants?New entrants are defined in the Newbie network as anyonewho starts a new farm business or becomes involved in anexisting farm business. They comprise a wide range of ages,agricultural experience and resourceaccess. Newcomers and successorscan enter farming at any stage in theirworking lives. They face commonbarriers: access to land, labour,capital, housing, markets, knowledgeand the networks needed to acquirethese resources.

Sustaining a cohort ofnew entrants intoagriculture is crucial tothe ongoing vitality,resilience andcompetitiveness of theagricultural sector andrural regions in Europe

- NEWBIE consortium

MARCH 2018

Newbie PROJECTNewbie is a four year project that runs from January 2018 toDecember 2021.

Newbie is a thematic network that receives funds from theEuropean Union’s Horizon 2020 program under the GrantAgreement 772835.

The project is coordinated by Andries Visser (StichtingWageningen Research).

Newbie in IrelandIn Ireland, Teagasc is the main contact for Newbie. Nationalcontact details:

Thomas Curran, thomas.curran@teagasc.ieTel: +353 25 42244,Consortium Member

Dr Tom Kelly, tom.kelly@teagasc.ieTel: +353 59 9182097Consortium Advisor

Contact Us

Wageningen ResearchEdelhertweg 1 8200 AK Lelystad

info@newbie-academy.eu

Visit us on the web at www.newbie-academy.eu

New Entrant Network: Business models for innovation, entrepreneurship and resilience

Action Newbie will organize a di-verse range of activities, both at the national and the European level. National discussion circles will be established with new en-trants and relevant stake-holders.

Newbie will create a video channel with a library of in-spiring new entrants visual

Our team

Newbie challengesNew entrants face quite a number of barriers indeveloping new sustainable farming businesses. Newbieaims to help new entrants to overcome these barriers.Examples of these challenges (barriers) are:

� Access to land: rising land prices and leasing rates make it hard to start new businesses, specifically in these region new entrants will experience competition with existing farmers ex-panding their farms for economy of scale.

� Access to capital: assets such as land may be required to secure financial loans above any unsecured threshold limits.

� Access to information: newcomers may have problems getting access to the traditional agricultural information system.

� Access to markets: new entrants may be unaware or unable to break into established marketing channels. It can be difficult to integrate into established supply

chains

ActionNewbie will organize adiverse range ofactivities, both at thenational and theEuropean level. Nationaldiscussion circles will beestablished with newentrants and relevantstakeholders.

Newbie will create avideo channel with alibrary of inspiring newentrants visual storiesfrom all participatingcountries.

We will provideopportunities for bilateralexchange of newfarmers and advisorsacross Europe.

Our team

NEWBIE is a consortiumof 10 organisationsacross Eu-rope:

� Stichting Wageningen Research (NL)

� The James Hutton Institute (UK)

� KU Leuven (BE)

� Universidade de Évora (PT)

� Fachhochschule Sud̈west-falen (DE)

� Univerza v Ljubljani (SI)

� RENETA (FR)

� TEAGASC (IR)

� Business Incubator Gotse Delchev

� Bund der Deutschen Landjugend (DE)

Discussion circlesAt the core of the project are national discussion circles ofabout 50 participants (new entrants, successors, advisors,educators, research) which will meet twice a year in everyparticipating country. In these networks the new businessmodels will be presented and discussed, toolkits validatedand experiences from the participants will be exchanged.Furthermore, the results of the national discussion circles areshared and discussed with all discussion circles through aspecial monitoring and evaluation program.

Steering groupsSteering groups will consist of up to 8 experts meeting twicea year to discuss the flow of the project at national level.They will contribute in building the discussion circles,prioritizing topics for the discussion circles and can beregarded as ambassadors of Newbie. The steering group willalso guide the consortium towards the optimal selection forthe international training.